Most sports journalists I know don’t follow recruiting, but I’ve always been fascinated by it.

Like with the NFL Draft, it’s interesting to see which teams get the best players. I also like to see where blue-chippers come from — areas of the country and which high schools. I’m always amazed how a certain high school can produce major college prospects year after year, while another high school across town might go decades without sending a football player to a top program.

I’m also interested in the star value given to prospects by the Internet recruiting sites. What’s always fun is to look back and see if those evaluations were accurate. Often they are way off, which suggests recruiting is as much an art as it is a science.

Colorado’s Kai Maiava is a case in point. Of the eight offensive linemen signed last February by CU coach Dan Hawkins, Maiava might have been the lowest rated – a 2-star. Maiava did not receive any other offers from schools of a BCS conference, no doubt because the 6-foot, 295-pounder from Hawaii stands about three or four inches short of the stereotypical profile for an offensive guard.

Maiava picked Colorado over New Mexico State, Idaho and Idaho State. Yet, he became the first of CU’s new offensive linemen to start, doing an admirable job against Oklahoma.

There are numerous examples where lower-rated recruits become a surprise. Former Utah quarterback Alex Smith, a 2-star recruit coming out of high school, became the first pick in the NFL Draft. At Colorado, wide receiver Markques Simas was the Buffs’ highest rated signee (4 stars) in the 2007 class. Coaches like his potential, but Simas is redshirting this season while a pair of 3-star wideouts, Josh Smith and Kendrick Celestine, have started games already.

A buddy of mine who hates recruiting wonders why anybody should give credence to the rankings given to teams on national signing day. I tell him that, yes, the recruiting rankings are absolutely no guarantee for success.

But I have to believe getting more 4-stars than 3-stars betters the odds that a program will maintain long-term success.

Defeating third-ranked Oklahoma on national television should help Hawkins get into the living rooms of more 4- and 5-stars.

Baylor is tied with Oklahoma State for fifth place in all-time Big 12 team championships won. Since the conference began competition in 1996, Baylor has won 25 titles. Colorado ranks seventh with 24.

Obviously, Baylor hasn’t claimed the trophy in football or men’s basketball. Of its 25 titles, 18 have come in men’s or women’s tennis.

Texas leads with 88 Big 12 titles, followed by Nebraska (62), Texas A&M (32) and Oklahoma (29). I find the fact that Missouri has won only only two Big 12 championships to be most surprising.

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There’s a funny passage about Laramie in the newly released book, “Tales from Oklahoma State Football” by former OSU coach Pat Jones with Jimmie Tramel ($19.95, SportsPublishingLLC):

“We got a surprise when we pulled in at the team hotel for our (1987) game against at Wyoming. Right there on the marquee of the Holiday Inn in Laramie were the words, “Welcome, University of Oklahoma.”

“Our athletic director, Myron Roderick, saw that, got all mad, and went in to crawl all over the hotel people. I suspect that Wyoming’s coach, Paul Roach, had something to do with it. I knew Paul reasonable well. I asked him if that hotel marquee was intentionally incorrect and he just smiled.”

I’ll have to razz Roach about that sometime. By the way, Wyoming played that Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders-led Oklahoma State team tough, losing by just 35-29.

I highly recommend the book for anybody interested in college football, particularly those of us in Big Eight/Big 12 country. It’s a good read.

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Trivia answer: Three stars for Ballenger, a former multi-sport star at Nampa, Idaho, who was ranked the nation’s 23rd-best high school senior quarterback last fall by Rivals.com.

If Ballenger, who is redshirting this season, doesn’t end up playing more like a 4-star or 5-star, it will surprise Colorado coaches and hall of famer Dan Fouts. An ESPN college football color analyst and former Pro Bowl quarterback, Foust was impressed with Ballenger when he watched the 6-4, 225-pounder during a CU practice prior to the Florida State game.